Identifying the Parts Inside Your PC
Before you begin working on your PC, it helps to be able to identify the basic components that you
might need or want to upgrade or repair. Think of it this way: Before you attempt to do any routine
maintenance on your car, it helps to be able to identify items such as an oil filter, a spark plug, and a
radiator. The same principle applies to your PC. Before you start pulling out your hard disk drives or
your memory SIMMs, it helps to be able to locate and identify them.
Desktop models may come in several sizes, often called names such as full-size, baby-AT, or slimsized
to denote some difference in relative size, but they all follow the same basic design layout,
which is a PC laid out horizontally or flat on the desktop.
Tower models also come in a variety of sizes with corresponding names such as minitower, midsizetower,
full tower, and so on. If you look closely you can see that the design of a tower is basically just
a desktop turned vertically or on its side. Turning a desktop on its side to produce a tower model does
offer a few advantages. Towers generally take less real estate on your crowded desktop and larger
tower models usually have additional space for more internal disk drives.